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13
May
09

Jordonna + DaShaun: Preview Wedding Photos!

By Sara Michele 14 Comments
Categories: weddings
Tags: ,

What a great wedding for a couple that are just perfect for each other!    It took me a whole day just to select photos for this blog post, because there are so many that I love.

I started the day out at Jordonna’s parents house photographing the girls getting ready.   They had awesome light coming through the windows in the living room, I had a great time messing around with different camera settings to create funky light effects.  Here’s one:

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A few more while everyone was getting ready:

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A quick shot of all the bridesmaids while we waited for Jordonna to finish getting ready:

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I really dig this one of DaShaun:

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Second week of bringing Katherine (the new assistant) with me, and it paid off BIG TIME.   My plan during the ceremony was to run around like I normally do and cover all angles myself.  I gave her a camera to use and told her to stand in a corner of the room facing the bride and groom.    Well….the ceremony was PACKED with guests.  There were so many guests they ran out of seats.  So the guests started lining up in the isles and I couldn’t get through to take pictures.    Katherine though, was boxed into the perfect spot and she did an AWESOME job.   Lesson learned:  2nd photographer at weddings = ESSENTIAL.   She gets the photo credit for the next 2:

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The reception was the bomb…I’ve never seen so many people on a dance floor in my life.  The dance floor was completely packed like in the following picture the entire night….oh, plus the fried pork chops were delicious.  I ate 2!  LOL.  :)

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Congratulations!!!!!!

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11
May
09

Bridgid + Rob preview wedding pics!

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , ,

Wedding season has officially began, and I’ve been shooting like crazy!   I’m so lucky to have such fun and easy going clients.   Rob and Bridgid’s wedding April 18th officially kicked off the “wedding season” which for me generally runs mid-April through the end of October.   They were married at the gorgeous St. Hugo Church in W. Bloomfield and the reception followed at Vladimir’s in Farmington.  Here are a few images from their day:

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Bridgid and Rob’s wedding was also the first wedding I worked with my new assistant, Katherine.   I’ve recently been experimenting with using off-camera flash but its way too hard to get everything setup and the lighting equipment moved around quick enough by myself so I had to bring in somebody else to help out.   I’m so happy with the progress made on Rob and Bridgid’s church family photos!   They are still not exactley where I want them to be, but MUCH improvement has been made.   I’ll post some examples later,  but first I gotta get back to finishing up everybody’s wedding photos.   :)

15
Apr
09

sarah + scott (preview wedding photos!)

By Sara Michele 2 Comments
Categories: weddings

Scott and Sarah are both so sweet, fun and laidback, I really had a nice time photographing their wedding.  Both their ceremony and reception were held at Crystal Garden’s in Howell, Michigan.   Sarah and her bridesmaids got ready in one of the extra rooms they have available there, and the guys were all hanging out in the lobby bar and ceremony room, so everything was at the same location which is very convenient.   I started with some “getting ready” shots of Sarah and the bridesmaids, and also was able to photograph the guys before the start of the ceremony:

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This is Scott’s “gangsta” look:    :)

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The beautiful bride:

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A few more of the groomsmen:

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One from the ceremony:

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I’m going to have to start warning people in advance about my mandatory goofy bridal party shot rule:

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Reception grand entrance of the bride and groom to Snoop Dogg “What’s My Name”…WICKED!!! LOVE IT!!

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I really like this one from Sarah’s dance with her dad:

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Toward the end of dinner, I saw mom with a brown paper bag and a devilish grin on her face walking towards the bathroom.  I also noticed several other women all simultanously get up and sneak into the bathroom.   Hmmm…. somethings going on in there, time to investigate:

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Pucker shots!  yay!  The real party is in the ladies room I guess.  :)

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They had a bag piper play the recessional at the ceremony (which was really cool), and they also had him play a few songs at the reception…he sounded great!

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I’ve got a ton of dancing photos to go through still,  Shaun from Mobile Rhythms DJ Service did a really good job keeping the party moving.

Congratulations Scott and Sarah!!

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11
Mar
09

Lee + Jess’s Wedding Slideshow Video

By Sara Michele 2 Comments
Categories: videos and weddings

I thought I would try something new for Jess and Lee’s wedding, so here’s a little video of a few of the images from their wedding day:::

I photographed Jess and Lee’s wedding the day after I came home from Las Vegas.  After spending a week with 10,000 photographers at the wedding photographer’s convention, I was totally inspired to try some new stuff.  I brought along with me my new 50mm Lens , and shot a ton of photos while the bride and bridesmaids were getting ready just mostly to learn how to use this cool little lens.    By the time I got to the ceremony, I had a good grasp of the capabilities of the lens and am excited to say, I shot about 75% of their ceremony with no flash, just natural light.  This is a first for me, and exciting because many churches don’t allow flash (see post from Maureen + Ryan’s wedding).    The reception at Lafayatte Grande in Pontiac was a blast!    I thought it was totally rad that Lee brought his bass guitar (and his band) and played for a few songs.    Great wedding!   Congrats Jess and Lee!!

08
Feb
09

Maureen + Ryan

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , ,

I’ve been looking forward to Ryan and Maureen’s wedding because I had such a great time shooting their engagement photos back in March last year. They are so easy-going and seem so in love with each other that I think it might be impossible to take a bad photo of them.

They lucked out with the weather and got a relatively warm February day, so we got the chance to take a few pictures outside at Bishop Park in Wyandotte:

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I think I want to specialize in fun bridal party poses. Its terrible but sometimes I spend more time trying to get them to goof around then to actually just stand up straight and smile nice…oops…haha.

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This wedding was my very first experience with really tough church restrictions on photography. The church was gorgeous but the rules were really hard to work with. 1) no flash 2) photographer must stay in the back behind the very last guest row 3) no standing unless everybody else is standing up . I’m so used to moving around, getting different angles and trying to get as close as possible that I was REALLY tempted to break a few rules. I stayed on good behavior though because the church coordinator looked pretty serious when she said that she wasn’t afraid to throw a photographer out of the church. So honestly, I’m pretty disappointed with the ceremony photos. Here’s one from up top in the balcony:

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Maureen was all about business when it came time to sign that marriage license:

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A shot of the rings on top of a very cute guest book that they made:

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One from Ryan and Maureen’s dance:

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Next it was time to get the party started:

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Congratulations to Ryan and Maureen!

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03
Feb
09

Devin + Kelly

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Well, my wedding work has slowed down quite a bit this winter, but I’ve been keeping myself really busy with plenty of other projects. I’ve recently been doing some work with John Stewart Photography, which has been a great learning experience. John’s company does pretty much only school and sport photography which is very, very different from shooting weddings. Its a very traditional style of portrait photography – set up a background, set up a couple lights, and photograph each student or player just once. I’m digging it because its forcing me to slow down a little and make sure I’ve got everything perfect before taking the photo. I’ve only got one shot with each person and I don’t want to screw it up! :) This is a total change from my weddings and portrait sessions where I typically try and take a more creative approach by taking lots of photos at different angles, lighting, settings, backgrounds, etc.

I’ve also been lucky to have gotten the chance to tag along with Robert Bruce and photograph a wedding with him. Robert’s a super talented photographer with very strong lighting and technical skills while still delivering amazing candid photos. I most def learned a ton working with him. @Robert: Thank you so much for letting me come to work with you!

Kelly and Devin’s wedding was on a cold January day, so we didn’t get the chance to go outside for photos but I’m still pretty happy with the indoor church stuff we did. I started out at the Ritz-Carleton in Dearborn where Kelly and the bridesmaids where getting their hair and make-up done:

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The flower girl was adorable. She was giving me a hard time at first about getting her picture taken, but she eventually warmed up to idea. That is until she had to put the dress on and then she wasn’t feelin’ it anymore. Here’s one pre-dress:

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I really love this one of Kelly:

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And this one of Devin: _-81

The bridal party:

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Experimental photoshop for the week. Not sure if I like it. I’m still deciding::

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The reception @ the Burton Manor was a ton of fun!

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Congratulations Kelly and Devin!!

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30
Nov
08

carrie + brett (preview wedding photos!)

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags:

Carrie and Brett’s wedding was so much fun, but also turned out to be one of the most challenging I have ever worked.  Challenging because the theatre at Loyola University where they had their ceremony (and where we did all of the portraits) was really, REALLY dark.  I can’t say they didn’t warn me, they totally did…but I’m so used to dark churches and dark reception venues I wasn’t that concerned.   Until I got there and realized just how dark theatres really are.   Other than that, the venue was great, and a perfect location for two theatre majors to tie the knot.  Here are a few from Carrie and Brett’s wedding::

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This next photo is one of my favorites:

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the bridal party was a blast!

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Another of Carrie and Brett -

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The reception was at Uncommon Ground, just a few blocks from Loyola University.  It had a very warm, welcoming feeling and the staff was super nice and helpful.   The food was amazing!

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Two of the groomsmen teamed up to give the most entertaining toast I have ever heard:

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You can have the coolest bridal party in the world, but what really makes a wedding reception fun is the guests.  I took lots of fun photos of the guests, but this one is one of my favorites:

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Tables were cleared out after dinner for dancing in one of the rooms, here’s a few from Brett and Carrie’s dance:

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Besides what an awesome couple Carrie and Brett are, what I will remember most about their wedding was the totally awesome jazz band, The Stumblebum Brass Band.  They gave me a CD!   :)  

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At the very end, the trumpet player handed over his instrument:

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I had a GREAT time at Carrie and Brett’s wedding.  My only regret is not getting more photos of Carrie and Brett together, and photos of Brett with his groomsmen.  There just wasn’t much time, and they were all so relaxed and seemed to be having such a good time, I felt awkard trying to get them to pose for photos.    Hopefully, there are a few they like!  :)

24
Nov
08

tony + angela (preview wedding photos!)

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , ,

I really loved the location Angela and Tony chose for their wedding! They had both the ceremony and the reception at Marygrove College in Detroit. The ceremony was in the chapel and the reception followed in the alumni hall. Both are very historic looking buildings with tons of character. What a great find for a venue! More information on this venue can be found at the Marygrove college website

Here are a few photographs from their wedding (click on any photo to make it bigger):

The groom:

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The guys:

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The bride with her bridesmaids:

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Angela’s brother was the “Man of Honor”:

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The whole bridal party was great. This was probably the easiest wedding I have ever worked. Despite having a pretty large bridal party, everybody was on time, organized and we got all of the photos done really quick!

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The happy couple!

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The guests loved their personalized candy bars!

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The first dance:

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This little girl was soooo cute. She kept running away every time I pointed the camera at her. Finally she got tired of running and I snapped this one of her:

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The DJ was great! Robert from Full Effect DJ Service. I really liked how he played the guitar during dinner. The limbo was also fun!

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Congratulations Tony and Angela! Thank you so much for having me as your photographer!

06
Sep
08

Rose and Dan’s Wedding!

By Sara Michele 2 Comments
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , ,

I had sooooo much fun at Rose and Dan’s wedding! Dan and Rose selected the Toledo Art Museum for their photo location and there is so many possibilities for photos there, I could have easily taken all their wedding photos in just that one spot. It must be the Toledo hotspot for weddings….I think we saw at least 5 or 6 bridal parties pulling up in limos to pose for photos. Rose and Dan most def had the BEST bridal party though. They were willing to do just about anything and were all so much fun, which is like a dream for wedding photographers. I was chatting with the limo driver about where to park my car, turned around and saw the bridal party climbing the “art” and knew I was about to have an awesome photo session.

I was barely able to snag this one before we spotted security walking over…

A few more from the art museum -

Rose pointed out the space between the building and the pillers, I can’t believe I missed it! This one turned out to be one of my favorites -

These next 2 are for Dan:

And this one is for Rose:

And finally, i dig this last one because it was one of those not planned, not posed, totally candid shots. The girls were walking back to the limo to leave for the ceremony and somebody honked their car horn. All the girls simultaneously threw their bouquets up and did a good ole’ WOOT! I pulled out my camera and snapped one but it happened so fast I thought I missed it. So I yelled out “do it again!” and got another. The “do it again” didn’t come out well at all, but the original did! :)

24
Aug
08

my first blog post

By Sara Michele 2 Comments
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , , ,

Yay! I have a blog! Woot! :)

It’s always been my goal to have at least a preview gallery posted online by the time my wedding clients get back from their honeymoon. So far, I’ve pretty much been able to do that, but this August is sooooo crazy busy and I confess that I am a little bit behind in my photo-editing work. The next couple months will continue to stay busy and at the rate I’m booking weddings for next year, I might need to set a more realistic goal for getting my clients their wedding photos. So, enter the new blog…… the plan is to post a few photos from every wedding here for client previews, which I’m thinking will be easier and much faster than going through an entire wedding day’s worth of photos.

So, to kick off my new blog:::

Amy and Andrew were married last Saturday, August 16th. Great couple, really easy-going and fun to hang out with all day. They were married in a gorgeous church located in Ida, Michigan. Here’s a few from their wedding……

(click on a photo to make it bigger)

Congratulations Amy & Drew!!!!

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